“I’m nothing like that asshole,” I said.
“And yet you pranced around with him in town a few weeks ago. Now give me my damn money or I’ll give you a taste of what you did to all of us in high school.”
The bouncers were pushing their way through people as I shoved the man off me. I dug out my wallet and took out three one hundred dollar bills, then tossed them at him. I had billions underneath my belt. One hundred dollars wasn’t anything to get emotional about. Plus, I had more important things to deal with.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me—”
But before I could get away from him, he had a pool stick up to my neck.
“Changed my mind,” the guy said. “I think it’s time we had a little fun with the Stillsville bully.”
The pool stick pressed into my windpipe and I gasped for air. What the hell was taking those damn bouncers so long? I brought my hands up to the cue stick and gripped it as tightly as I could, then began to push. Just because I didn’t play football professionally any longer didn’t mean I’d let all my training go out the fucking window. I gritted my teeth and eyed the man in front of me as I began to pant for air. I shoved the asshole off me and charged him, then wrapped him in a chokehold and slammed him onto one of the tables nearby.
Then, his buddies decided to get in on the action.
Punches were thrown and blocked. Kicks were delivered and missed. The bouncers fought the two guys off as best as they could before I turned my sights back to the man getting up off the floor. He grabbed the money I’d tossed at him and jammed it into his pockets, then came at my legs and picked me up off my feet. I brought my fist down into the small of his back, crumbling him to his knees as people began to shout and scream.
All of the aggression and anger, and all of the frustration I’d held inside since Anton’s death came pouring out. I grabbed the guy’s neck and delivered punch after punch, throwing people off as they came at me.
“Take it outside!” the bartender yelled. “Now!”
But I couldn’t hear her. The only thing I saw was red. The only thing I felt were bones cracking underneath my punches. I felt an arm come down around my neck and I threw my head back, crushing the person’s nose before another one of the guys took aim at my jaw.
I was going to pound these assholes into the ground for ruining my shot at making things right with Michelle.
Chapter 6
Michelle
I gawked as the all-out bar brawl began. The bouncers shoved me to the side as some guys slammed Grayson into the wall, and before I could yell out for him punches were being thrown. The guy was trying to choke Gray and I watched him with pure determination and raw strength take over the fight of his own volition. He blocked every punch and grabbed every kick, twisting legs around and slamming people into tables. I couldn’t believe how quickly my night had gone sideways.
My night at work had been a slow-moving disaster, and then I saw Gray in the damn bar. Now, I was watching him pound people to a bloodied pulp for no other reason than they attacked him first. I didn’t even know him well enough to call him my ‘ex’, and now he was back in town and beating the shit out of people.
I eyed the door as everyone yelled and cheered on the fight. This place was disgraceful. The bar. The town. The people in it. I had my chance to escape while Gray was distracted, but I couldn’t make myself move towards the door. Glasses broke and tables buckled, and my head swiveled around to see Gray’s fist in the air above a bloodied face and a guy with a broken nose.
He was nothing, if not strong.
“I’m calling the police!” the bartender exclaimed.
Whipping my head over, I watched her pick up the phone. That was it. I couldn’t let Gray be arrested for something like that. Especially when he wasn’t the first one to do the attacking. In a small town like Stillsville, no one split hairs like that. Everyone got arrested and thrown into a holding tank before charges were brought. It didn’t matter who started it or who ended it. I pushed myself through the crowd and grabbed onto Gray’s arm, watching as he stood to his feet and rose his fist up.
But the second he looked down into my eyes, his body softened.
“Come on,” I said.
I dragged him out the door and away from the patrons yelling all sorts of obscenities at him. Even though he kept turning around to see what all was going on, I managed to get him down the block and around the corner. Sirens sounded off in the distance as we stood there in a darkened alleyway, with nothing but our panting breaths filling the space between us.
“If you can hear me, Grayson MacDonald, then go back to wherever you came from! You’re not welcome in this town!”
I winced at the statement as Gray’s jaw clenched.
His panting chest caught my gaze as my eyes trailed along his body. The shadows played sharply off his features as his eyes darted around the darkened alley I pulled us into. His arms were still swollen from the encounter and veins pulsed in his forearms. I closed my eyes and remembered how his body looked, naked and covered in sweat.
Then, I remembered how quickly he had dropped me and left. Which caused me to take a step back from him.
“Michelle,” he said.
“Thanks for the enjoyable evening,” I said, sarcastically. “Now we’re even.”